Category Archives: local news

local news, media news

Anniversary reminds me of how things can work out

retirement.pic_

This is another in an occasional series of blog posts commenting on upcoming retirement.

Everything happens for a reason. Is that too clichƩ to repeat here? Probably, but I just did it anyway.

An anniversary is fast approaching that reminds me of how life can throw you curve balls. You just have to be patient, keep the faith, rely on the love of others — and by golly, things can have this way of working out.

Later this week marks the fourth year since my full-time journalism career came toĀ a suddenĀ end. I wasn’t quite ready for it to conclude in that manner. It did, though.

I won’t belabor you again with the particulars, except to say that at the moment I learned that the job I’d been doing at the Amarillo Globe-News for nearly 18 years would be handed over to someone else was like being punched in the gut — and the face — at the same time.

I collected myself,Ā went home, decided in the car on the way to the house that I would quit, came back the next day, cleared out my office, had an awkward conversation with my soon-to-be former employer and then left.

My wife and I departed Amarillo that very day for an eight-day vacation back east. We had a wonderful time seeing friends in Charlotte, N.C., and in Roanoke, Va.

We came home and started thinking about what we would do next.

I was too old — 63 years of age at the time — to seriously consider going back to work full time. I knew I couldn’t get hired because of my age.

Oh, sure, employers said they didn’t consider that. I know better. Ageism exists, man.

I decided to start the transition into retirement.

I’ve been working a number of part-time jobs in the four years since my departure from the craft that in many ways had defined me over the span of nearly 37 years. I was able to keep my hand in the profession I love so much: writingĀ news featuresĀ for KFDA News Channel 10, blogs (until recently) for Panhandle PBS and helping produce the Quay County Sun weekly newspaper in Tucumcari, N.M.

Along the way I made a startling discovery.

It was that while I didn’t want my career to end when it did and in the manner that it did — I am now happy that it did end.

We’re continuing that transition into full-time retirement. We plan to travel more. We plan to be our own bosses. We intend to see this continent of ours up close. All of those plans are proceeding.

We’ll have some more major changes in our life coming up. I won’t divulge them here. Our family and closest friends know what they are … so I’ll leave it at that.

My wife has told me I seem less stressed out these days. Hmmm. Imagine that.

The Associated Press and United Press International style books always instructed us to “avoid clichĆ©s like the plague.”

Thus, the clichĆ© about things happening for a reason seemsĀ so trite.

Except that in this case, it’sĀ flat-out true.

local news

Meanwhile, City Hall asks for some tough decisions, too

vote1

So, perhaps you thought your tough decisions begin and end with the vote for president of the United States.

Hmm. Wrong!

Amarillo City Hall has put forward a package of seven ballot propositions. They total nearly $340 million. If we approve them all, our municipal property tax rate will increase a few cents per $100 assessed valuation on our property.

What we’ve got here is a comprehensive list of projects covering a multitude of areas involving the service that our city provides.

Here’s the link that summarizes them:

http://amarillo.gov/pdf/CIP_list_for_ballot_resolution.pdf

The package of measures represents a significant change in the process of governing at City Hall. The list is almost mind-numbing.

The list includes projects set for streets, public safety, municipal facilities, parks, the Civic Center, athletic facilities andĀ the vehicle fleet.

My guess would be that every single one of Amarillo’s 200,000 residents partakes in at least one of those municipal services. Thus, we have a vested and tangible interest in ensuring we get the most of them.

This is a fascinating method of securing public support for these services. If voters approve all of them, they all get done — over time.

Voters, though, have the chance to decide which of these projects are the most important. If they don’t want to improve the city’s park network, they can vote no on that proposition. If voters think they’re safe enough and do not want to improve police and fire protection, well, you can say “no” to that one, too. Hey, if you like the condition of the streets, you can reject that one, too.

Here are the proposals as presented by the City Council:

http://amarillo.gov/pdf/Resolution_Callilng_November_Election_16.pdf

The total price tag, I should add, was winnowed down from an original wish list of nearly a billion bucks.

Amarillo’s elected and senior administrative leadership have boasted for as long as I can remember — and I’ve been observing City Hall for more than 21 years — about the city’s famously low municipal tax rate.

The city also carries relatively little debt, unlike other cities of comparable size around the state.

City Hall has done a thorough job of examining areas that need improvement. It has asked us — the taxpayers — to dig a little deeper to pay for them. It’s reasonable to ask those of us who partake of the services offered to pay for them.

Those agents of change who took office in the spring of 2015 promised to do things differently than what has happened before. I’ve been critical of some of the changes brought by the City Council.

This one, though,Ā represents a positive — and proactive — new direction.

***

In the weeks ahead, I’ll be looking at some of these individual propositions and offering a comment or two on them. Until then, study up.

local news, national news, political news

Minds can change in heated political climate

I’m hearing a lot of pundits saying things about how locked in Americans are on the presidential election.

Voters’Ā minds are made up.

They’re going to vote for Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton or Republican Donald J. Trump. Perhaps they’ll vote for a minor-party candidate; we’ve got a few of them on the ballot this year.

Nothing either ofĀ the major-party nomineesĀ can say is going to sway voters on the other side.

I’m not so sure.

I witnessed the changing of a mind nearly a year ago. It involved an Amarillo municipal referendum. I wrote about it. Take a look.

https://highplainsblogger.com/2015/10/a-mind-has-changed-on-the-mpev/

The above blog post, published in October 2015, also notes how one former Texas legislator, the late Teel Bivins, told me how another legislator, Carl Parker, could change minds during Texas Senate floor debate.

Are our minds locked in on this election?

Maybe. Maybe not.

local news

‘Have a nice weekend’? Sure … whatever you say

Retirement

This is the latest in an occasional series of blog posts commenting on upcoming retirement.

I spoke earlier today with someone over the phone about an interview I am trying to arrange for a story I plan to write for KFDA NewsChannel 10.

It’s a part-time gig. I don’t work full time any longer. I’m semi-retired — with the emphasis increasing on the “retired” part and decreasing on the “semi” part.

When the conversation ended, the individual on the other end of the call invited me to “have a nice weekend.”

The thought occurred to me at that very moment: Uh, sure thing … except that my “weekends” are bleeding more and more into the rest of the week.

There are moments when I forget the day. It’s not that I’m suffering from some kind of short-term memory loss. It’s because my schedule is no longer wedded to responsibilities at the workplace.

To be truthful, one of my sisters told me about this phenomenon after she had retired some years ago. My other sister still has a full-time day job, so she still has those obligations.

Me? Or my wife? We have none of that.

My wife has been retired as well for a couple of years. I’m in the process of transitioning toward that status myself.

But I do understand fully the idea that “weekends” arrive at various times during the week. Their arrival isn’t necessarily at end of the Friday workday. It could arrive on Thursday, Tuesday … any day!

I will do my best, though, to keep a civil tongue in my mouth whenever someone wishes me a “nice weekend.” They mean well.

Hey, maybe they think I’m a young dude.

education news, local news

Highland Park goes homework-free

Homework

Four hundred students at Highland Park Elementary School here in Amarillo have received an early-in-the-school-year gift from their principal.

They won’t have homework this year, according to a letter sent to parents from Principal Vanette Barrett.

The letter mirrors an letter also sent out by a Fort Worth teacher, which I noted in an earlier blog post.

This is an interesting trend — perhaps you can call it that — in education.

It fascinates me greatly. I hope that this yearlong experiment that Barrett is conducting at her school works well for the students and teachers.

Barrett told the Amarillo Globe-News that studies have revealed that homework doesn’t necessarily improve students’ academic performance. She also told the newspaper she considered implementing the no-homework policy since the spring.

The letter that Barrett sent had gone viral earlier and it encourages parents to spend more time with their children and to make sure they get to bed early.

“It sounds so simple,” Barrett told the G-N, “but those things truly help the child more than sitting at home and doing a worksheet.”

Do you think?

Good luck with your experiment, Principal Barrett.

 

local news

Puppy Tales, Part 25

puppy

Did someone say this is National Dog Day?

Good grief! It almost got past me.

I won’t be long with this blog post. You’ve read already about Toby the Puppy, the pooch we acquired Labor Day Weekend 2014. He’s been a member of our family now for just shy of two years.

We laugh every single day at — or with — our puppy.

He slays us with his vigor, his relentless insistence that we toss toys around the house so he can fetch them and bring them back. We leave him alone for, oh, 20 minutes, and when we return he acts as though we’ve been gone for a week.

I mention the words “walk,” “ride” or “eat” and he’s all over me. Same for when my wife mentions those words in his presence, too.

We have beenĀ longtime cat lovers. We still are. We miss the kitties — Socks and Mittens — we had when Toby came into our life.

But our puppy captured our hearts immediately upon his arrival.

Happy National Dog Day? Pffftt!

Every day is Dog Day in our house.

local news, Sports news

Here’s why minor-league baseball is good for Amarillo

baseball

I’ve spoken already about my hope that Amarillo can reel in a baseball franchise that would play ball in a new downtown ballpark.

What I want to explore briefly here today is why the potential new franchise is so much more desirable than what the city has at this moment, which is a “franchise” in name only.

The current baseball team calls itself the Texas AirHogs. It is an “independent” teamĀ that splits its home schedule between Amarillo and Grand Prairie.

When these guys play their Amarillo half of their “home” schedule, they suit up and perform at the Potter County Memorial Stadium, which in reality is a dump.

I’m not sure what next season will bring us. The AirHogs might go somewhere else next year. They might devote their full home schedule to Amarillo. Or, they might decide to stay full-time in Grand Prairie.

The push now is on to lure a Double A franchise from San Antonio. The Missions are affiliated with the San Diego Padres of the National League. The Padres appear to be a well-run major-league franchise. They produced a Hall of Fame outfielder, the late Tony Gwynn. Indeed, Gwynn finished the 1981 season in Amarillo, hitting .462, which was a precursor to theĀ brilliant career he forged with the Padres.

Amarillo is no longer a one-horse burg known only for Cadillac Ranch and the gigantic steak. We’re on the cusp of passing the 200,000-population barrier; we might already have passed it, for all I know. We are blessed with a healthy local economy and an increasingly diversified work force.

The city has committed to building a downtown ballpark. It cost is about $50 million. Demolition and construction will begin perhaps later this year. The city is now negotiating with the sports group that owns the Missions to bring that franchise to the Top of Texas.

My hope is that the city canĀ sell itself to the Missions, persuade them to come here, rather than go somewhere else. My expectation doesn’t yet match my hope, but the gap between them is narrowing.

The Amarillo City Council has done a good job of jerking my emotions around. The council occasionally says the right things to assuage my concerns about the direction the city might be going. Then some council members blurt out intemperate remarks that get people’s attention — for the wrong reasons.

An affiliated minor-league baseball franchise would be wonderful for Amarillo. That it would play baseball in a new venue downtown would produce a fine return on the investment being made in that venue.

Again, this only is a hope, but I think it’s a reasonable one: The crowds attending baseball games downtown could bring plenty of what we could call “recreational revenue” to many of the businesses that would be clustered in the downtown district.

I will presume the city is negotiating with the group that owns the Missions is bargaining in good faith. If it comes to pass, as one council member has suggested will happen soon, then the city will reap the benefit.

How do I know that? It’s happened thousands of times already in many American cities. It surely can happen here.

I believe it will.

local news, Sports news

Is an Amarillo baseball deal at hand?

ballpark

“Amarillo Councilman Randy Burkett said he expects his cityā€™s leaders will sign an agreement with Elmore Sports Group in late September or early October.”

— FromĀ an Amarillo Globe-News Facebook post

What prompts Councilman Burkett to make such a bold prediction? Lubbock missed a deadline to put a proposed tax increase on the November ballot that would pay for construction of a new baseball stadium.

Lubbock’s late entry into the baseball franchise hunt appeared for a moment to hinder Amarillo’s own quest.

Thus, the deck now appears cleared for Amarillo to negotiate aggressively to bring the Double A minor-league baseball franchise to the High Plains. The franchise currently does business as the San Antonio Missions.

The Missions are planning to vacate the Alamo City, which is angling to bring in a Triple A franchise.

I am not privy to the goings-on at City Hall. I just sit out here in the peanut gallery hoping for the best.

And “the best” appears, if Burkett is correct, to be taking shape.

Amarillo is set to begin making room for its downtown ballpark. Crews will begin demolition of the old Coca-Cola distribution building across the street from City Hall. Once the lot is swept clean, then the plan is to build the multipurpose event venue that voters endorsed with their November 2015 referendum vote.

So, if an agreement is about a month away, then the franchise that now plays hard ball in San Antonio will bring its act to Amarillo — hopefully soon.

Then the city can have a legitimate minor-league baseball franchise to root for in a shiny new ballpark. It would be a significant improvement over the half-in, half-out bunch that splits “home” games between Amarillo and Grand Prairie and plays half of its “home” schedule at a rat hole ball park at the Tri-State Fairgrounds.

Amarillo can do better than that.

local news

Puppy Tales, Part 24

puppy

I’ve bragged about Toby the Puppy many times already on this blog.

There. Having stipulated my pride in our puppy, I now shall offer a brief additional boast.

He has learned the word “heel” when we walk with him through our Amarillo neighborhood.

The good news about walking a 10-pound pooch is that he doesn’t drag us around the neighborhood behind him. The bad news about Toby, though, is that he remains highly energetic when we go for walks. The first sight of his leash sends him into ecstasy. He cannot wait to get out the door.

But this “heel” business — the universal command for dogs to walk next to their “parents” — has been a bit of a challenge.

I’m happy to report, though, that Toby now seems to understand the meaning of the word. We say “heel!”Ā asĀ he starts to wrap his leash around our legs and, by golly, he takes his place between his mother and me.

He lays his ears back, which is a sign that he’s relaxed while he walks.

OK, now for the additional learning that’s required.

Toby’s attention span is limited. He often doesn’t stay in the “heel” position for very long. He sees another dog, a cat, hears a noise that startles him … he jumps and starts to pull on the leash again.

We’ll stay with it. The exercise provides plenty of benefit for all of us. We are about to celebrate the second anniversary of Toby joining our family. Thus, our puppy has learned a lot already and has demonstrated some remarkable intelligence.

We just need to get him to stay focused. Wish us luck.

local news

Walk produces interest in those bike trails

park

My wife and I enjoy walking through the neighborhood, something we’ve done for many years and something we’ve renewed with increasing vigor recently.

On a walk the other day through our southwest Amarillo ‘hood, I noticed the “Bike Trail” sign just as I watched a guy on a bicycle turn the corner and peddle his way along the trail.

The thought then occurred to me: Where does the trail go?

Then I remembered. The city has started a comprehensive bicycle and walking network, but hasn’t finished it.

I spoke with the city parks and recreation director, Rod Tweet, a few months ago for a story I wrote for NewsChannel 10.com. The story dealt with the hike-and-bike network that I knew the city had started.

He couldn’t get too specific in answering questions about when the project would be completed. My sense at the time was that the city had a lot of other projects that greater priorities than the hike/bike network.

Hmmm, I thought. Oh yeah. The city hasĀ that downtown thing going on. I hope they get around to completing the network.

Tweet explained that the goal is to connect all the neighborhoods covering more than 110 square miles with trails that people can travel on their bicycles or on foot. I don’t believe the intent is to enable someone to walk from, say, the Colonies to Lakeside Drive. But I guess they could if they wanted to do so … eventually.

The city fathers and mothers have talked for longer than I can remember about enhancing the quality of life for residents.

I continue to believe that a comprehensive citywide network of hiking and biking trails does precisely that for Amarillo.

The Parks and Rec Department did a good job fixing up the oldĀ railroad right of way along Plains Boulevard. I see people using it all the time — as IĀ zip by in my automobile.

There’s more to do. My hope is that the city gets moving soon on finishing a worthwhile project.